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Andrés E. Caicedo
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user56097
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user56097
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What is the most useful non-existing object of your field?

When many proofs by contradiction end with "we have built an object with such, such and such properties, which does not exist", it seems relevant to give this object a name, even though (in fact because) it does not exist. The most striking example in my field of research is the following.

Definition : A random variable $X$ is said to be uniform in $\mathbb{Z}$ if it is $\mathbb{Z}$-valued and has the same distribution as $X+1$.

Theorem : No random variable is uniform in $\mathbb{Z}$.

What are the non-existing objects you have come across?